Today’s saint is one of my favorites: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a French Visitation nun given the vision and mission to promote the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was prepared for this mission even in and through her personal history. A website on saints writes: “Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. She confesses, 'the heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering.' ”
Her special mission began on December 21, 1674. Three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her. During the next 13 months he appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love she was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour's vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted. She was helped in realizing this mission by his Jesuit confessor, a saintly man himself, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere.
In my faith journey, I could say that the devotion to the Sacred Heart has been one of the most influential in my life, perhaps because of the wide diffusion of this devotion in the Philippines. It has become deeply rooted in me that I remember one time in my college days when I felt so uneasy and I literally “dragged myself” to attend the evening Mass in the University chapel. I was amazed at the great crowd present and it was only then that I realized it was the First Friday of the month!
Going beyond the ritual requirements of the devotion, I believe that its global appeal rests on its deeper meaning - the reality that we all want to be in the “heart of God” that is, we all want to experience the love of Christ and learn his same way of loving. And perhaps, to be able to go deep into the meaning of Christ’s love, we can consider some excerpts of Kahlil Gibran's poem on love:
Then said Almitra, 'Speak to us of Love.'
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said: When love beckons to you follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. (...)
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
(...)
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, I am in the heart of God.'
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Her special mission began on December 21, 1674. Three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her. During the next 13 months he appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love she was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour's vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted. She was helped in realizing this mission by his Jesuit confessor, a saintly man himself, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere.
In my faith journey, I could say that the devotion to the Sacred Heart has been one of the most influential in my life, perhaps because of the wide diffusion of this devotion in the Philippines. It has become deeply rooted in me that I remember one time in my college days when I felt so uneasy and I literally “dragged myself” to attend the evening Mass in the University chapel. I was amazed at the great crowd present and it was only then that I realized it was the First Friday of the month!
Going beyond the ritual requirements of the devotion, I believe that its global appeal rests on its deeper meaning - the reality that we all want to be in the “heart of God” that is, we all want to experience the love of Christ and learn his same way of loving. And perhaps, to be able to go deep into the meaning of Christ’s love, we can consider some excerpts of Kahlil Gibran's poem on love:
Then said Almitra, 'Speak to us of Love.'
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said: When love beckons to you follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. (...)
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
(...)
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, I am in the heart of God.'
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
